Prince Saud attends Arab Foreign Ministerial Council meeting

March 4, 2010

Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal led the Kingdom’s delegation to the 133rd Arab Foreign Ministerial Council meeting at Arab League headquarters in Cairo yesterday. The session was attended by Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and twenty Arab ministers.

During their deliberations, the delegates drafted the agenda for the March 27-28 Arab Summit to be held in Sirt, Libya. Other topics of discussion included the Arab-Israeli conflict, Yemen, mechanisms for settling inter-Arab disputes and U.S. sanctions against Arab countries.

At the conclusion of the meeting, a final communiqué touching on a wide range of subjects was issued. It welcomed the framework agreement between Sudan’s government and the Justice and Equality Movement, paying tribute to Qatar for hosting the talks and providing aid to Darfur. It warned of negative results if a U.S. bill imposing sanctions on Arab satellite network operators was passed. Finally, the communiqué strongly condemned Israel’s decision to add the Ibrahimi Haram and Bilal mosques to its list of Heritage Sites and reiterated the need for Israel to withdraw from all Arab lands.